WEBVTT 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.080 Greece is one of the main entry gates into Europe. 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:23.720 We don't even have basic needs, 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:26.600 sometimes we stay all day without eating food. 00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:33.480 You see, I sleep in the park. 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:40.280 They seek safety in Europe, but Greece is not safe. 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:45.920 You come to Greece? You will know Greece... 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:51.040 No work, no papers, the police, it's a problem... 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.520 I see frightened people, a lot of frightened people. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:59.920 Sometimes, if you go outside, they try to beat us. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.000 There is a very worrying increase in racist violence 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.920 and we hear about attacks almost daily. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:12.040 Directly on their hearts. Knives on their hearts. 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:14.480 I like Greece, but Greeks don't like foreigners. 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.200 Greeks don't like foreigners, especially black people, 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:18.640 they hate foreigners. 00:01:40.600 --> 00:01:44.640 Most refugees arrive in Europe by foot or by boat, 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:47.760 landing in Greece, Italy and Spain. 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:51.720 Under EU regulations, asylum claims have to be made 00:01:51.720 --> 00:01:55.120 in the country through which refugees first enter Europe. 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:58.000 They cannot move to another European country. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.360 In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights 00:02:02.360 --> 00:02:05.160 found that asylum seekers in Greece 00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:08.360 are at risk of inhuman and degrading treatment. 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:12.920 First of all it was done for the deficiencies in the asylum procedure, 00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:17.200 the detention conditions and living conditions in Greece. 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:26.600 Not even the police or the state 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:29.240 give us an exact number of refugees. 00:02:29.240 --> 00:02:33.040 It's complicated. We don't know the number exactly. 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:38.640 In 2010 it was estimated by Frontex that about 80% 00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:40.640 of all those who entered the European Union 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:42.440 entered through Greece. 00:02:42.440 --> 00:02:46.800 So all those people had nowhere to stay, no social welfare, 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:49.480 and many of them were just sleeping rough. 00:02:49.480 --> 00:02:52.120 And they were trapped in Greece, 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.200 with no possibility to leave and no possibility to stay. 00:02:57.200 --> 00:02:59.720 We ask for help from the European Union. 00:02:59.720 --> 00:03:01.360 Things are not going well. 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:05.600 Some sleep in the streets and eat from the trash. 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:08.200 We are not eating good food. 00:03:08.920 --> 00:03:12.080 We're going to school hungry. 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:18.840 16 year- old Barry lives in a hostel for child refugees, 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:21.120 some as young as eight. 00:03:21.640 --> 00:03:24.400 These images of the conditions inside 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.680 were filmed by one of the residents. 00:03:27.880 --> 00:03:29.720 You can see the toilet the way it is. 00:03:30.600 --> 00:03:35.120 17 year-old Yaseen is a resident in the same hostel. 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:37.400 I have big problem. 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:39.440 Don't have work, 00:03:40.320 --> 00:03:42.320 don't have money, don't have clothes, 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:43.920 don't have shoes. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:48.360 A few months later Yaseen receives bad news 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.480 about his family back in Pakistan. 00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:55.560 Last month they bombed our home, 00:03:56.480 --> 00:03:57.960 I lost my family. 00:03:59.640 --> 00:04:02.480 The same summer, Yaseen turns 18 00:04:02.480 --> 00:04:04.320 and is made to leave the hostel. 00:04:05.440 --> 00:04:08.040 Since then he has been on the streets. 00:04:12.640 --> 00:04:14.040 Early in the morning 00:04:14.040 --> 00:04:17.840 Athens parks are full of refugees sleeping rough. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.200 When they are picked up by the police after crossing the border, 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.080 they are initially detained, 00:04:26.080 --> 00:04:28.360 and then left to fend for themselves. 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:33.720 Police tell me: Go outside. 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.160 You see, I sleep in the park. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:38.480 They tell me: Go, ok, go! 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:41.400 I have nowhere to go, I don't know nobody. 00:04:41.440 --> 00:04:42.480 I sleep in the park. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.880 Sometimes you pick something from refuse bin to eat. 00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:47.360 No house, nothing, nothing I can do... 00:04:51.320 --> 00:04:55.120 Really, here in Greece we suffer a lot. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:56.560 We suffer. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:57.760 We suffer a lot. 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:03.920 It is even difficult to eat, pay for water, food... 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:06.360 It's hard, it's hard for us. 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:13.640 People have to help refugees in this country. 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:18.400 They don't have arrangements for refugees. 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:21.040 We leave our countries because of problems 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:22.880 we don't leave our countries as we like. 00:05:23.880 --> 00:05:26.600 Nobody likes to leave his country, for his heart. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.840 We leave because of the problems. 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:32.000 They give me a gun, you know, AK-47, 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:33.600 they say 'You have to fight'. 00:05:34.280 --> 00:05:36.360 Nurdin did not want to fight. 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:40.560 His mother sent him out of the country so he would be safe. 00:05:41.080 --> 00:05:43.240 From Syria he walked for weeks, 00:05:43.520 --> 00:05:46.440 travelling through Turkey on foot to get to Europe. 00:05:47.320 --> 00:05:50.040 I'm staying in Axernon, just down the street, 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:51.600 I'm staying with my friends. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.640 Axernon is a neighbourhood in Athens 00:05:55.640 --> 00:05:57.440 with a large Somali community. 00:05:57.440 --> 00:06:00.400 Welcome to Somalia! No Greek, Somalia! 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:08.440 This is the place, this is the house I live in. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.800 We sleep here, you see. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:12.560 This is mine, I sleep here. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.680 There's another 7 guys who sleep here. 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.320 Not everybody has one, 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:18.920 we share, you know, we share the mattresses. 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:25.080 - Yeah, ten people. - Ten people in this room? 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.120 18 people share this tiny one bedroom flat. 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:38.840 We really need help from the other European countries. 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:41.280 We really want to get out of this country. 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:43.320 We really have problems here. 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:53.960 I have a problem with this eye as you can see. 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:58.080 I tried to go to the hospital three times. 00:06:58.080 --> 00:07:00.160 But they didn't help me nothing. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.120 Nurdin managed to get a referral 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.080 and prescription for his eye condition 00:07:06.080 --> 00:07:10.320 after visiting the free clinic run by Doctors of the World. 00:07:11.320 --> 00:07:13.920 We started off by only taking care 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.000 of migrant and refugee patients. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.680 It's only for the past six months, 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.440 since the economic crisis started, 00:07:22.440 --> 00:07:24.960 that we see a lot of Greek patients as well. 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:31.960 At least for the past year, we have a humanitarian crisis 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:33.760 because of the economic crisis. 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.480 There is no money. 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:48.680 Yeah, I understand the economy is bad. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:50.480 You people should allow us to leave! 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:58.840 It's much too hard. 00:07:58.840 --> 00:08:02.040 I'm looking for a way to get out of Greece. 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:05.320 To any other European country... 00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:11.920 We see even asylum seekers now 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.720 that they want to go back to their countries because 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:17.880 they have no jobs, they cannot survive in Greece. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.800 Maybe I'll go back to my country, 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:24.600 because here it's not good for me. 00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:27.320 My country is better. 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.080 Mahmud has spent time in an Iranian prison. 00:08:33.800 --> 00:08:37.680 Here is a situation where you feel that 00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:40.920 there is dire need for European solidarity. 00:08:40.920 --> 00:08:43.000 Active solidarity. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.200 Because usually immigrants come here, 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:48.000 and they don't have legal papers, 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.360 because they want to go to other European countries. 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:55.680 If you want to go to other countries, France, Norway, 00:08:55.680 --> 00:08:56.920 airport: problem. 00:09:00.560 --> 00:09:03.200 When we end up in a very poor country, 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:05.440 you people should allow us to go! 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:07.320 Why? 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:10.440 At the airport: Get out! Get out! 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:11.560 Always, why? 00:09:11.560 --> 00:09:14.960 The other member states want Greece to control the borders 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:17.800 so that the people don't go irregularly there. 00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:20.760 We are trapped here like in a prison, it's a prison. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:25.400 I went to the airport, I told them: In this paper 00:09:25.400 --> 00:09:28.480 they write I have to leave the country within 30 days. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.720 So I'm leaving, I'm going to another country. 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.400 I was arrested, three days in jail... 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:50.880 We come here to get papers, but they don't give us any. 00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:52.120 It's a problem. 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:58.640 There are many people and many asylum seekers 00:09:58.640 --> 00:10:02.320 who do not manage to apply for asylum 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:07.040 and may be in the streets of Athens undocumented. 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:12.120 You see thousands of people without papers here. 00:10:13.040 --> 00:10:16.080 The police station in Athens where most refugees 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:19.520 make their initial asylum claim is Petrou Ralli. 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.760 Applications can be made once a week. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:29.640 I'm coming here for two months, every week I'm here. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:32.920 And how long have you been here? 00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:35.240 Six months. 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:37.240 For two years. Every week I come here. 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.040 No give papers. 00:10:39.040 --> 00:10:42.440 Some people have been here for three years, ten years. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:44.200 They don't give them papers. 00:10:47.520 --> 00:10:49.600 We sleep here, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:51.320 day and night. 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:53.440 In the sun, in the cold. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:57.040 No house, nowhere to sleep, no water, no food, no toilets. 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:01.520 Not only do asylum seekers queue day and night, 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:04.160 sometimes waiting for months or even years 00:11:04.160 --> 00:11:05.960 to start their application. 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.160 They also say the police forcibly disperse them, 00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:12.920 preventing them from registering their asylum claims. 00:11:12.920 --> 00:11:15.320 Before you people came, they were pushing us. 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:17.120 Like in the slave trade. 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:18.800 The police come and chase us away 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:21.040 We return and they chase us off again. 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.320 Police, they beat, beat, beat. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:26.760 They beat people. 00:11:26.760 --> 00:11:28.600 They say we should go. 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.840 You people stay here for quite long, 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.760 so that they cannot pursue us again. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:36.360 An interpreter was willing to speak 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:40.320 about her experiences working at this police station, 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.360 on condition of anonymity 00:11:42.360 --> 00:11:44.920 Her words are spoken by an actress. 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:49.800 I think one of the main problems with Petrou Ralli is the back gate. 00:11:49.800 --> 00:11:52.320 In theory your interview should take place 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:56.120 from 3 up to 6 months after you applied for asylum. 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:58.360 In most of the cases it's not like that. 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:02.200 It could be like 2 years before you have your first interview. 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:04.760 So they have to come and renew their pink cards 00:12:04.760 --> 00:12:06.840 every 3 to 6 months. 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.240 So they come at 6 o'clock in the morning 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:11.920 they wait outside behind the grills. 00:12:11.920 --> 00:12:15.640 If it's raining, if it's snowing, if it's 40 degrees, 00:12:15.640 --> 00:12:17.280 they have to wait there. 00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:21.120 So at 2:30 or 3 a cop or two come back and 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:25.000 they call names without keeping any confidentiality at all. 00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:34.200 So, they are given their pink cards, 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:37.360 but sometimes they also give rejections or positives. 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.040 Mostly rejections, 00:12:39.040 --> 00:12:42.440 because I've never heard of any positive decision actually. 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:44.200 So, they call names, 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:49.440 They will bring in and out about 10 or 20 people. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.520 The point is, they will not translate the whole decision. 00:12:52.520 --> 00:12:54.040 They will just tell them: 00:12:54.040 --> 00:12:55.360 'You leave the country' 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:56.720 'You, fuck off' 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:58.560 or: 'You're done with asylum' 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:03.520 or: 'You didn't convince anyone with your lies.' 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:16.680 In these situations, extremist groups take advantage. 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:20.080 They find fertile ground to take advantage. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:24.360 The racist people, their community, it's called racist people, 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:25.840 they don't like black people. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:27.560 They broke the windows, you see. 00:13:27.560 --> 00:13:31.160 They were throwing stones at the house 00:13:31.160 --> 00:13:33.000 and we were sleeping inside. 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:35.560 They were staying here like ten minutes, 00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:37.480 and with the police also here. 00:13:37.480 --> 00:13:39.440 They don't do nothing you see. 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.440 They were more than fifty people, shouting... 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:45.120 'Go, go back to your country black people.' 00:13:46.800 --> 00:13:49.840 They stabbed one boy from here to here. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:52.080 The boy wanted to die. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.440 When I saw the boy yesterday, the boy started to tell me 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.480 that Golden Dawn wanted to kill him. 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:00.240 Because they don't want foreigners. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.160 They call themselves nazi, nazi group. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:07.640 Chrysi Avgi, or Golden Dawn is an extreme right party. 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:14.120 In the 2012 elections, they won 18 out of 300 seats 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:18.000 in the Greek parliament with 7 % of the vote. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.240 Mobile phone footage published online 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:25.520 shows Golden Dawn supporters singing their anthem 00:14:25.520 --> 00:14:27.800 and giving nazi salutes. 00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:33.000 A neo-nazi party, a nazi sympathising party 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.680 in a territory, in a part of the world 00:14:36.680 --> 00:14:41.800 where the nazis caused huge pain only a few decades ago, 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:45.840 it doesn't logically make any sense, it can't really exist. 00:14:45.880 --> 00:14:50.640 According to the records of the Hellenic Statistical Authority 00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:54.800 when the Second World War began 00:14:54.800 --> 00:15:00.280 The Greek population was 7,344,000. 00:15:00.280 --> 00:15:07.480 By the time the War ended our population was 6,805,000. 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:11.960 Manolis Glezos, who is a Syriza MP, has a seat in parliament 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:15.800 he, with his friend in 1941, climbed onto the Acropolis 00:15:15.800 --> 00:15:18.360 and pulled down the swastika and put up the Greek flag. 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:22.040 And he has to sit in the parliament with neo-nazis! 00:15:22.040 --> 00:15:24.280 It's an extraordinary situation. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:29.800 Golden Dawn is an originally fascist organisation 00:15:29.800 --> 00:15:32.840 It has connections with all the fascist parties all over Europe 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:35.200 and the whole world, even the Ku Klux Klan. 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:40.840 Opinion polls at the end of 2012 show growing support 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:43.680 for Golden Dawn, placing them third. 00:15:45.520 --> 00:15:47.640 The following mobile phone clip was filmed at a 00:15:47.640 --> 00:15:51.080 Golden Dawn meeting in Perama, on the outskirts of Athens. 00:15:51.920 --> 00:15:54.800 We received complaints concerning local problems 00:15:54.800 --> 00:15:56.680 in Keratsini due to Egyptians. 00:15:56.680 --> 00:15:59.240 But we say that from now on they will give account for 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:02.680 their actions to Golden Dawn and to the Greek citizens. 00:16:06.880 --> 00:16:09.800 The day after that meeting, Egyptians are gathered 00:16:09.800 --> 00:16:12.680 in Perama at the home of some fishermen. 00:16:12.680 --> 00:16:22.400 Egyptians never had bad relations with the Greeks, 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:28.600 in fact, quite the opposite. 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:34.520 But recently the far right party Golden Dawn has been 00:16:34.520 --> 00:16:38.200 on the rise, with its aggression towards foreigners. 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:40.360 This is the car we use for work. 00:16:46.520 --> 00:16:52.920 My family and I were sleeping in the house, 00:16:52.920 --> 00:16:57.640 at around 3:10 am we heard our 00:16:57.640 --> 00:17:02.520 doors and windows being broken. 00:17:02.520 --> 00:17:12.360 I opened the window and saw more than 10-15 people 00:17:12.360 --> 00:17:18.880 with Golden Dawn written on their t-shirts. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:25.760 Each one of them had at least one of these metal batons. 00:17:25.760 --> 00:17:29.080 They forgot this. 00:17:29.080 --> 00:17:37.600 If you hit someone over the head with this, you could kill them. 00:17:37.600 --> 00:17:41.200 And we don't know why they are doing this to us Egyptians. 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:46.560 I have been here for 20 years, I pay my taxes. 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.120 They came from there, 00:17:49.120 --> 00:17:50.960 from that street. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.920 They came down and saw that 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:57.160 one of the Egyptian fishermen was sleeping here. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.760 This is his blood. 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:13.720 And then we heard the man shout 'Come! Help me, help me!' 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:21.640 We went upstairs onto the roof, 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:23.560 up there, 00:18:23.560 --> 00:18:26.680 and we couldn't see his face, 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:30.840 so much blood that we couldn't see his face. 00:18:38.520 --> 00:18:42.680 This is inhuman of them 00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:48.280 when will this end? 00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:02.520 This is very sad, unbelievable, 00:19:02.520 --> 00:19:09.440 about 7-800 attacks, and many, many attacks to kill people. 00:19:09.560 --> 00:19:12.960 And there is a kind of pattern in these attacks: 00:19:13.320 --> 00:19:16.960 many people going together, 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.920 attacking one migrant 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.320 using dogs to intimidate them... 00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:25.160 They start telling the dog to chase us: 00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:27.000 'Take him! Take him!' 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:30.360 And they were laughing, they were happy. 00:19:30.360 --> 00:19:34.160 They go to the areas where the immigrants live 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:37.480 and they wait for them especially late at night 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:41.320 and then 3 or 4 or 5 of them attack one. 00:19:41.320 --> 00:19:43.800 They were many, they grabbed me 00:19:43.800 --> 00:19:45.480 started beating me. 00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.440 So, in a sense, it's not random 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.920 I think it must be organised in that sense. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:55.360 Some days were very heavy for us, 00:19:55.360 --> 00:20:00.920 in one day, about 31 people were in hospital. 00:20:01.760 --> 00:20:04.360 They are injured with broken legs and hands and open heads. 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:08.360 I have seen personally people who have been 00:20:08.360 --> 00:20:11.080 beaten in the face, in the head. 00:20:11.080 --> 00:20:14.600 And they were afraid to come immediately, 00:20:14.600 --> 00:20:16.440 they were beaten on a Saturday, 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:19.560 and they would come midweek, the next week. 00:20:19.560 --> 00:20:24.240 Because they were afraid to circulate in the town. 00:20:24.800 --> 00:20:29.040 'Hey mavros!' that's: 'Hey black, hey black!' 00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:31.600 How do I know that it is the Golden Dawn? 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:34.360 I just ask them: Who hit you? And they say: 00:20:34.360 --> 00:20:38.080 White people, wearing black clothes with the signs. 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:42.400 The people who chase immigrants 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.640 when they see them on the road, 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.800 they always have something, a sign, of Golden Dawn. 00:20:48.800 --> 00:20:51.360 And if you hear their spots on TV, 00:20:51.360 --> 00:20:56.200 they threaten Greek people who might be helping 00:20:56.200 --> 00:21:00.480 in any way, even speaking with an immigrant, 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:02.480 they threaten them as well. 00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:26.160 Our dead brother's name was Shehzad Luqman. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:30.720 He had been living in Peristeri for the last four years. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:34.800 He was going to his job on his bike. 00:21:34.800 --> 00:21:37.840 And they were waiting there and when he got there 00:21:37.840 --> 00:21:41.800 they pulled out their knives, their weapons, 00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:45.000 and they killed our brother. 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:10.640 Perpetrators of racist attacks are rarely apprehended 00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:13.640 however on this occasion it was different. 00:22:14.200 --> 00:22:16.520 A taxi driver saw the whole thing 00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:18.280 and he called the police. 00:22:18.280 --> 00:22:20.640 Every minute he called them: 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:23.640 They're now here, they're now turning... 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:27.440 From the spot of the murder to Syntagma. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:31.760 For 35 or 40 minutes he was following them. 00:22:31.760 --> 00:22:36.160 At last at Syntagma, they were arrested. 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:42.600 And there was the knife, with blood, they found it on them. 00:22:43.760 --> 00:22:47.120 In the home of one of the suspects the police also found 00:22:47.120 --> 00:22:50.640 a selection of weapons and Golden Dawn literature. 00:22:51.080 --> 00:22:54.600 And now the police does not accept that it was an attack 00:22:54.600 --> 00:23:00.040 with racist and nationalist motivation. 00:23:00.040 --> 00:23:03.000 The law never arrested them. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:07.760 It was the effort of the taxi driver. 00:23:07.760 --> 00:23:11.720 A very brave man, and I salute this person. 00:23:16.760 --> 00:23:19.040 Every day in broad daylight there are attacks, 00:23:19.040 --> 00:23:21.520 on buses or in the streets, 00:23:21.520 --> 00:23:24.400 where Greek citizens intervene and call the police, 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.600 when there's an attack on an immigrant. 00:23:26.600 --> 00:23:29.960 And police have shown up and have arrested the immigrants 00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:34.360 and sometimes they even harass and arrest the Greek people. 00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:37.720 Everywhere where an attack is happening, there is always 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:43.320 a car, or a cycle, or a policeman walking, 00:23:43.320 --> 00:23:45.040 like they didn't see anything. 00:23:45.320 --> 00:23:48.400 One attack, even the police was near there, 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:51.600 they did nothing, they were talking... 00:23:51.600 --> 00:23:53.600 They acted like they didn't see me. 00:23:53.600 --> 00:23:56.440 I have a friend, a black one, who works with me, 00:23:56.440 --> 00:23:59.400 and suddenly a car stopped 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:03.280 and four people came out of the car, they attacked him. 00:24:03.280 --> 00:24:06.360 And the police was there, he was calling the police, 00:24:06.360 --> 00:24:08.440 and they were looking, they didn't move. 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:10.560 And they let the car go. 00:24:10.560 --> 00:24:13.040 They said: 'Oh, we cannot do anything for you.' 00:24:13.040 --> 00:24:16.320 There is no accountability from the police. 00:24:16.320 --> 00:24:18.400 And there is no accountability from the Greek state. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:20.280 From the police, from the government 00:24:20.280 --> 00:24:22.120 they have an open permit. 00:24:22.120 --> 00:24:24.600 What you have here is a state that has a 00:24:24.600 --> 00:24:28.120 clear continuity with a totalitarian regime. 00:24:28.120 --> 00:24:31.960 We have to remember that Greece had a dictatorship, 00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:36.680 that ended in 1974 officially, but there was a transition 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:40.240 and not a rupture into the post-dictatorial state, 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:41.840 into the democratic state. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:46.400 When the junta fell in 1974 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:50.000 the police force was never really cleaned up 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:53.360 and so the police force in Greece doesn't really operate 00:24:53.360 --> 00:24:55.160 to serve and protect the people 00:24:55.160 --> 00:24:57.360 the way it should in a democratic society. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:03.880 I've been beaten by fascists several times. 00:25:08.360 --> 00:25:11.640 I've been beaten by police more times than beaten by fascists, 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:15.120 since 1973 and the revolt against the dictatorship. 00:25:17.800 --> 00:25:20.400 It was about 11 o'clock in the morning 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:23.000 and we heard some voices outside 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:25.360 and we found out that there was 00:25:25.360 --> 00:25:30.080 one policeman in plain clothes and one in uniform 00:25:30.080 --> 00:25:32.720 beating an immigrant. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.760 We started shouting from the windows, 00:25:34.760 --> 00:25:37.480 things like: 'Stop these racist attacks!' 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:40.720 In a second, there were about 30 policemen, 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.000 25-30 policemen, riot police, 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:44.640 coming from the one side of the road 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:48.760 and about 15 other people from the other side of the road. 00:25:48.760 --> 00:25:51.880 Later we discovered that they were members of Golden Dawn. 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:53.960 They took the immigrant away. 00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:57.720 And they all gathered outside the front door of our offices, 00:25:57.720 --> 00:25:59.720 started shouting at us. 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:02.080 In the beginning saying that 'You have to come down' 00:26:02.080 --> 00:26:06.600 and 'You give protection to illegal immigrants and we're going to arrest you' 00:26:06.600 --> 00:26:10.520 and the other ones shouting: 'We won't just arrest you' 00:26:10.520 --> 00:26:14.240 'We will' ok 'fuck you!' 00:26:14.280 --> 00:26:16.840 Some of them were saying: 'We will turn you into soap' 00:26:16.840 --> 00:26:19.400 the fascist, nazi slogan. 00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:22.200 It was a terrifying thing. 00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:24.520 Not just because there were the fascists there, 00:26:24.520 --> 00:26:27.760 but because together with the fascists were policemen 00:26:27.760 --> 00:26:32.400 in uniforms, officially showing that they were policemen 00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:36.080 being in a kind of delirium, 00:26:36.080 --> 00:26:41.240 crazy, beating, shouting, swearing... 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:10.680 The police, they ask me: 'Where is your paper?' 00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:12.440 When I give them my papers they ask me: 00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:15.240 'Is this the paper?' - they cut it. 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:18.720 And they put it like this and say: 'This is not a paper' 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:21.880 I said: 'You are the ones who gave me that paper!' 00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:24.320 They attack me, the police. 00:27:24.320 --> 00:27:28.440 And then they remove my shirt, I'm there with no shirt on. 00:27:28.440 --> 00:27:31.120 They look at me and say: 'Take him to the police' 00:27:31.120 --> 00:27:32.760 'He doesn't have papers.' 00:27:32.760 --> 00:27:35.040 They take me to the police, although I have papers. 00:27:35.040 --> 00:27:37.640 After nine hours they let me go. 00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:41.280 We have also testimonies by people 00:27:41.280 --> 00:27:43.920 who have been attacked by the police. 00:27:44.280 --> 00:27:48.200 The police beat you like animals, they beat you like animals. 00:27:48.800 --> 00:27:51.160 We have people who come 00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:54.240 who have been hit by clubs by the police. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.160 Omonia is an Athens neighbourhood 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:34.280 with a large migrant community. 00:28:36.080 --> 00:28:38.120 I was walking through Omonia 00:28:38.120 --> 00:28:41.720 and I heard a lot of screaming and shouting 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:45.480 and I saw an immigrant being arrested by two policemen 00:28:45.480 --> 00:28:48.560 with their scarves over their face. 00:28:48.560 --> 00:28:52.720 And he fell to the ground and they picked him up by his legs, 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:54.240 he was in handcuffs, 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:56.920 and they started dragging him along the ground. 00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:00.320 And I took my mobile phone out and started filming. 00:29:00.320 --> 00:29:03.560 At which point they turned their attention on me 00:29:03.560 --> 00:29:05.800 and surrounded me 00:29:05.800 --> 00:29:09.920 and an argument followed demanding my phone. 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:13.600 And I was arrested and taken to the police station for the day. 00:29:14.520 --> 00:29:18.960 Police have a permanent presence, checking papers and arresting people. 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:28.400 At a street corner in Omonia police are detaining 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:31.640 foreigners suspected of being in the country illegally. 00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:36.120 The detainees wave at the camera, motioning to get closer. 00:29:36.120 --> 00:29:37.880 You take photo? 00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:39.000 We are press. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:41.880 But the police object to the recording of their actions. 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:43.280 Yeah, but you take photo? 00:29:43.280 --> 00:29:44.840 You can't take photo, you know. 00:29:44.840 --> 00:29:45.760 Close the camera please. 00:29:45.760 --> 00:29:49.800 The police have no right to prevent you from filming 00:29:49.800 --> 00:29:53.280 or taking pictures in public spaces. 00:29:53.280 --> 00:29:54.800 We're being stopped. 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:01.200 Are you journalists? 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:02.320 Yes, we are journalists, we're from London. 00:30:02.320 --> 00:30:06.240 It is illegal recording police. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:09.240 Policemen have no right to request any photographic 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:11.840 data from your memory card or video camera. 00:30:11.840 --> 00:30:13.920 It's explicitly prohibited. 00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:16.960 If you take video, delete the video. 00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:22.560 They have no right at all to touch your stills or video camera. 00:30:22.560 --> 00:30:24.720 Get your hand off my camera! 00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:26.440 Get your camera down. 00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:28.600 I'm allowed to film. 00:30:28.600 --> 00:30:32.920 Get your hand off my camera! 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:38.720 And there's been a very serious development a few months ago 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.560 when a group of demonstrators including women 00:30:41.560 --> 00:30:44.560 were arrested and held in detention and tortured. 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:47.160 They went on motorbikes through some of the areas in Athens 00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:49.320 that have high immigrant populations, 00:30:49.320 --> 00:30:52.040 where Golden Dawn have been literally terrorising people 00:30:52.040 --> 00:30:56.360 to show that we Greek citizens or Greek people 00:30:56.360 --> 00:30:59.320 are in solidarity with immigrants and we don't accept 00:30:59.320 --> 00:31:03.840 that our neighbourhoods are being taken over and dominated by neo-nazis. 00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:17.440 They were hitting them, they were slapping them, they were spitting at them, 00:31:17.800 --> 00:31:19.880 they were using them as ashtrays. 00:31:20.120 --> 00:31:22.200 When I went there and saw them I was shocked 00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:23.840 by what I saw, by the beatings. 00:31:23.840 --> 00:31:27.920 These heavy bruises are not inflicted by one hit. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:32.200 These are repeated hits with different instruments and means 00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:34.640 in the same body parts. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:38.600 That can only happen if you intend to ... 00:31:38.600 --> 00:31:41.440 ... to inflict severe pain on someone, 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:43.360 if you want to torture them. 00:31:43.360 --> 00:31:46.200 What we heard from the 15 arrested people is that 00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.800 the policemen who were doing all these things to them 00:31:48.800 --> 00:31:51.520 openly claimed that they are members of the Golden Dawn. 00:31:51.520 --> 00:31:53.240 What was transferred to me was that 00:31:53.240 --> 00:31:57.040 the most terrifying thing was that other policemen 00:31:57.040 --> 00:32:01.360 were filming on their cell phones, their mobile phones, 00:32:01.360 --> 00:32:05.240 saying that they will use these videos and photographs 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:07.160 to give them to Golden Dawn. 00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:14.600 The official line of the police is that nothing like that happened. 00:32:15.840 --> 00:32:17.880 And what has happened now in my reading is that 00:32:17.880 --> 00:32:24.760 the Golden Dawn has come in as a kind of a backup, 00:32:24.760 --> 00:32:28.000 one of the last few backups the state has, 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.800 to impose fear on its citizens, on its subjects 00:32:31.800 --> 00:32:35.760 and to continue existing and ruling as before. 00:32:35.760 --> 00:32:39.480 Fear is not an option. 00:32:39.480 --> 00:32:44.400 The people must understand that, we must not fear them. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:48.960 If we let them scare us and terrorise us, then they win. 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:52.040 This must not happen. 00:32:52.040 --> 00:32:54.800 People should fight back, people should resist. 00:32:54.800 --> 00:32:56.880 The people have the power to do so. 00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:01.240 In June 2012 97 year-old Katina Sifakaki 00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:04.480 leads a march against Golden Dawn through Athens. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:09.320 She has fought fascism once before, during the Second World War, 00:33:09.320 --> 00:33:11.520 when she was part of the Greek resistance. 00:33:12.080 --> 00:33:20.640 The people were united, they put aside every difference they had between them. 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.360 In April 2012 a few hundred people joined a protest against Golden Dawn. 00:33:30.920 --> 00:33:34.040 Since then thousands have taken to the streets 00:33:34.040 --> 00:33:36.800 to protest against racist attacks, 00:33:36.800 --> 00:33:39.880 in solidarity with refugees and migrants. 00:33:40.080 --> 00:33:43.800 These groups, antifascists, the left wing 00:33:43.800 --> 00:33:47.680 are hope for the immigrants. 00:33:48.280 --> 00:33:51.360 There's been a very very strong and diverse response 00:33:51.360 --> 00:33:53.440 which you don't see reported in the international media 00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:54.520 on the really local level, 00:33:54.520 --> 00:33:57.520 in neighbourhoods and squares all over Greece. 00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:00.080 We're going to come together and protest 00:34:00.080 --> 00:34:03.840 against these deranged murderous fascists. 00:34:03.840 --> 00:34:05.160 We are not afraid of them. 00:34:05.160 --> 00:34:09.280 Greek society is a freedom-loving, democratic 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:13.920 and spontaneous society. 00:34:31.520 --> 00:34:35.800 There's no money left to run even the most basic of services. 00:34:35.800 --> 00:34:38.880 You don't have any money to run hospitals properly, 00:34:38.880 --> 00:34:40.960 or kindergartens or anything. 00:34:40.960 --> 00:34:44.200 Even the most primary, the most basic infrastructures 00:34:44.200 --> 00:34:46.840 for peoples' everyday lives are not there anymore. 00:34:48.080 --> 00:34:51.720 Greek doctors have been instructed in a directive 00:34:51.720 --> 00:34:54.680 to not treat undocumented migrants. 00:34:56.800 --> 00:34:59.400 I used to work in a hospital about a year ago 00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:05.160 and we had that instruction but we never followed it. 00:35:05.160 --> 00:35:09.440 Because as doctors we have sworn to help people. 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:11.720 We use a mobile clinic. 00:35:11.720 --> 00:35:18.080 And they were treating people near a Golden Dawn office. 00:35:18.080 --> 00:35:22.560 And they were out on the balcony and showing like: 00:35:22.560 --> 00:35:26.520 'We will get you' to us, who are doctors! 00:35:26.520 --> 00:35:29.400 In a lot of the international media the Golden Dawn 00:35:29.400 --> 00:35:32.600 is portrayed as somewhat anti-systemic, maybe, 00:35:32.600 --> 00:35:35.640 as a party trying to create some sort of rupture, 00:35:35.640 --> 00:35:37.840 some sort of radical change, 00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:41.000 while essentially they are the continuation 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:44.680 of mainstream politics by other means. 00:35:44.680 --> 00:35:48.880 Before the last elections, you saw speeches for instance by Samaras 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:53.440 even going as far as saying: 'We need to clean Greece of immigrants' 00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:57.440 The kind of terms that sort of point to ethnic cleansing 00:35:57.440 --> 00:36:01.320 which is exactly the sort of language that Golden Dawn use. 00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:03.440 When Samaras was saying for example: 00:36:03.440 --> 00:36:06.200 'We have to clean the streets from immigrants' 00:36:06.200 --> 00:36:11.040 Golden Dawn was getting out and started hitting immigrants in the streets. 00:36:11.040 --> 00:36:15.200 The prime minister's choice of words 'to clean the streets' 00:36:15.200 --> 00:36:19.680 draws a direct parallel between migrants and dirt or litter. 00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:23.600 Speaking of migrants in terms of disease, 00:36:23.600 --> 00:36:26.320 natural disaster or infestation, 00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:30.440 bears the implicit message that they are a threat to society. 00:36:32.240 --> 00:36:35.120 People are moving, they're desperate 00:36:35.120 --> 00:36:38.240 because of violations of human rights, 00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:41.480 because of poverty, because of climate change, 00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:45.720 for all these reasons, people are moving. 00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:49.840 I get into the country and they give me a paper: 00:36:49.840 --> 00:36:53.080 In thirty days you should leave the country. 00:36:53.600 --> 00:36:56.320 I don't know where to go now, after thirty days, 00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:59.880 I should leave the country, go back to Somalia... 00:37:02.520 --> 00:37:04.600 We've had like 10 people coming from 00:37:04.600 --> 00:37:07.760 Iran, Afghanistan or Iraq in 2000. 00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:10.000 And now we have thousands of them. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:12.760 It's not something that happened by accident. 00:37:12.760 --> 00:37:17.000 We didn't leave them any choice back in their countries, so they came here. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.600 Most of them did not really want to come to Greece. 00:37:19.600 --> 00:37:24.040 I really want to be in any country better than this. 00:37:24.040 --> 00:37:26.120 We are not animals, we are human beings. 00:37:26.120 --> 00:37:28.640 We can walk, we can eat, we can talk. 00:37:28.640 --> 00:37:31.640 So please, I'm begging the two of you now, 00:37:31.640 --> 00:37:34.680 anybody who will see us on here, tell them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we ask them that they should allow us to go, please!